FPB 64 Videos

The ultimate survival storm tactic, jogging into breaking seas, has had its first (and hopefully last) FPB test. This took place recently off the Needles near the Isle of Wight in the UK’s Solent. Read the rest »

With a bit of offshore experience under your belt, and the right yacht, preparing for and executing ocean crossings becomes routine. You will get to the point where you will decide to go on Monday, spend the next couple days provisioning, and be gone by Thursday. But the first time you head for the horizon, there’s going to be some trepidation. It happens with everyone.

While our usual fair is more extreme weather than this video depicts, there are some lessons for us here as well, not the least of which is the efficiency at work you are about to watch on your computer screen. The video was shot by Brian Rickard on a recent cruise with the Henrys aboard the FPB 64 Sarah Sarah, in British Columbia.

Sarah Sarah has a full payload of the Henry’s gear aboard and half tanks. She weighs around 80,000 pounds / 36,000kg, and is running at nine knots through the water (net of current). This is a speed length ratio of 1.15, on the low side of where the FPB 64s normally operate in smooth water.

We are in the habit of dissecting video of our yachts to study their action and reaction in various wave trains. There are a variety of video editing packages which facilitate this (these days we use Final Cut Pro). Slowing down and/or stopping action, and occasionally speeding things up, often tease out details that are missed by those onboard (ourselves included).
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